


Don't Pull Your Punches If You're About To Lose

by cpt_winniethepooh



Series: Happy Steve Bingo fills [8]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Peggy Carter, BAMF Peggy Carter, Captain America: The First Avenger, Foreplay, M/M, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Sparring, Sparring as foreplay, referenced edging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:14:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21524281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cpt_winniethepooh/pseuds/cpt_winniethepooh
Summary: Back in the day, it was Peggy Carter that thought a small and sickly Steve how to fight and win. Today, Steve still uses her techniques.Bucky is not impressed, except for how he maybe is.A Happy Steve Bingo fill for the prompt 'sparring'.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Happy Steve Bingo fills [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1139174
Comments: 4
Kudos: 78
Collections: Happy Steve Bingo 2019





	Don't Pull Your Punches If You're About To Lose

"You ready?" Bucky asked as he lowered his center of gravity, his black, Wakandan arm spasming.

A wide grin bloomed on Steve's face to match Bucky's own, slightly manic one, and he squared his shoulders.

"Always."

They moved at the same time: Steve lunged, Bucky blocked, and then it was _on_.

It no longer took Steve back to the Helicarrier where he had been fighting to save the world against his best friend. Or the time they first went toe to toe on the highway. Or to the front where all the Howlies tried their hands at defeating Steve, mostly for the laughs but also to see what he (and they) were capable of.

Instead, whenever they sparred to burn some energy, channel their frustration, or just for foreplay, really, Steve went back to where he had learned it all: to Peggy Carter.

Bucky did not pull any of his punches, not even with his metal arm, but Steve dodged all of them, sidestepping swiftly to land one of his own hits to Bucky's less defended side. It would've been more than enough against a human, but Bucky was also enhanced, and he rolled faster than Steve's arm could've reached him.

The first time Peggy Carter took one look at small, sickly, bullied Steve Rogers was the day God also smiled down upon him. Steve was determined, yes, and always stood up after a fight, but often with broken bones and a bloody nose and a concussion to last him a week. Peggy did not like that at all.

"You need to do better," she said, when she saw him in his bloodied uniform and bruised knuckles.

"I wasn't gonna give 'em what they wanted," Steve mumbled.

Peggy stared him down before gracing him with a handkerchief and a roll of her eyes.

"You are giving them exactly what they want. You're hurt and they aren't."

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not 6 feet and 220 pounds too."

"That has nothing to do with being able to defend yourself," she said.

Sure, Steve was used to the shield so much that handling it was truly like having an extra limb: instinctive and immediate. Like the extension of his body, he used it to defend, to throw, to ram, to slide on, and basically do anything that Bucky qualified as ‘misuse’.

But he was also damn effective without it. He was not afraid to back up when Bucky advanced, only to turn the tables and surprise him with a kick that although Bucky blocked, it threw him slightly off-center, which was enough for Steve to land a nasty punch to his flesh shoulder.

Bucky grunted, and then it was his turn to move back from Steve's next attack.

"Not bad," he said, not even slightly out of breath, the fucker.

"Thanks," Steve grinned, before resuming his earlier attempt.

"I've been matched against men bigger and stronger than me who took one look at me and decided I was nothing," Peggy said. It was late at night, and the lamplight didn't quite reach behind the barracks they retreated to. Steve's weak eyes had to struggle to differentiate between shadows and objects, which he feared wouldn’t improve his ability to defend himself. "Sound familiar?"

"It does," he grumbled, and he couldn't see it clearly, but she may have smirked at that.

"Good. We will build on that."

Bucky managed to throw him over his shoulder, but Steve landed on his feet and used the momentum to kick back, and Bucky had to grab his leg to prevent the hit. That had his hands occupied, and Steve grabbed his shirt to draw him forward.

Bucky let him go with one arm to put the metal one between the two of them, effectively driving their session into a standstill.

"Now what?" he asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I have a few ideas," Steve said, voice dropped low and suggestive, and Bucky's eyebrow climbed higher when Steve leaned in for a kiss.

"Let your appearance fool your enemies. Use that, literally and figuratively. You need to use their momentum against them instead of brute force; brains instead of brawns, if you will. Sidestep and then grab instead of blocking. Always go for the most valuable areas of a human body: eyes, wrists and fingers, groin – where nobody is muscular, no matter how much they train."

Peggy kept sharing her insights with him piece by piece, one during each late night training. Steve was black and blue all over, and aching more than ever, and at first, doing miserably during the actual military training due to constant soreness and lack of proper sleep – then, it all began to change. 

His asthma still prevented him from running as far as the rest; his bad back prevented him from climbing upwards; but whenever someone tried to pick on him – or when they did something he thought they shouldn't have done – he no longer had to pick his pieces up from the ground while the other party walked away laughing. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"Use your surroundings, too. Back up against a wall and let them hit it instead of you. Pretend to be really hurt to explode when they lean down to give you the final kick. If you have a table, shield yourself with it."

A small part of him thought it wasn't fair, but the larger part of him knew that nothing in life was fair. If it had been, big, strong, healthy men wouldn't have beaten him up regularly. He needed to survive, and if that involved playing dirty, so be it.

Bucky was timid against him at first, but upon Steve's insistence, he opened up quickly. Steve turned the kiss from a chaste, sweet one to an absolutely filthy instrument of foreplay: he explored Bucky's mouth, not minding that their noses bumped or both of them smelled of sweat, and Bucky's hands involuntarily tightened on where he was still holding them apart.

When Steve rolled his hips, Bucky closed his eyes for a second and moaned.

That split second was enough: Steve's arm shot out and grabbed Bucky's throat – not menacingly, not hard enough to bruise or cut off his airflow, but as a sign that he could have done them all, had he wanted to.

"You fucker," Bucky said, giving Steve one of his most effective bitchfaces.

"I win," Steve said, and let him go – only to find himself on his back with Bucky straddling him the next moment.

"Ooooof," Steve groaned as all the air left his body.

"That was a low blow," Bucky said.

"It worked," Steve wheezed – Bucky was holding him down with all his weight.

Bucky's eyes narrowed. "I don't care how dire a situation is; if you use this against anyone who isn't me..." he began with a warning clear in his voice.

"Yeah?" Steve cocked his head and grinned.

"I will tease you, play with you until you get all hot and bothered, then won't let you come when you're on the edge," Bucky finished. Steve's eyes widened. "For _hours_. Until you're begging."

He rolled his hips to punctuate his point, and Steve gasped.

"No, fine, I won't utilize it against anybody but you," he rushed to say. "Only you."

"Good," Bucky said, and his hold relaxed. He lay down onto Steve, and Steve wrapped his arms around him to keep him close.

"You're a bit proud though," Steve muttered.

"...maybe," Bucky admitted, and pecked a kiss to Steve's jaw.

 _Thanks, Peg, you're the best_ , Steve thought, before they took the next kiss towards the bedroom.


End file.
